Recently there has been increasing speculation that given the appropriate level of support families could expand caregiving activities, further decreasing the demand for expensive provision of formal services. It is important therefore to investigate the factors which influence family caregiving. One way to do this is to study caregiving behaviors of informal supports in an "ideal" setting, so as to better apprehend such inherent limitations as may be applicable to less ideal situations. Such an ideal setting should be one in which the tightly-knit social structure creates a network of service and emotional support both for the care recipients and for those who have primary responsibility for care provision. The Israeli kibbutz is a uniquely suitable environment for the proposed study because it lies at one end of the continuum in terms of a tightly-knit social structure: the basic organizing principle of the Kibbutz is that of communal effort and shared responsibility. Following a one-year NIA funded pilot study, in conjunction with the Brookdale Institute of Gerontology and Adult Development in Israel, we propose to examine the attitudes and behaviors of caregivers toward vulnerable elderly in a system which is organized about the provision of informal services, and in which extensive supports are available to both care recipient and care provider. The disciplines represented on the study team include clinical psychology, social psychology, and social work. The aims of the proposed study are investigate: the association between the extensiveness and comprehensiveness of the informal support system, psychological stress of the primary caregivers, and the decision to institutioalize. A sample of 236 vulnerable elderly kibbutz members and their primary caregivers will be drawn from a cross section of Israeli kibbutzim. Both the elderly and their caregivers will be interviewed twice, at an interval of one year. Instruments pre-tested during the pilot study (appended to the proposal) will be used.